Wind motors

ABSTRACT

Wind motors which are propelled by the impact of the wind against the vanes of an impeller wheel, that have wind channeling devices that gather the wind from a large area and funnel it at increased density and pressure to apply multiplied impact against the impeller vanes.

This is the first division of application Ser. No. 484,148, filed6-28-74. This application is identified especially to FIG. 1, FIG. 4,and FIG. 5, and the part of the specification that pertains to thesedrawings.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

1. Using the impact of the wind against an impeller wheel to providemechanical or electric power.

2. Description of the Prior Art

1. There are two broad classes in the prior art. One class are those inwhich the impeller revolves at right angle to the direction of the windand has vanes set at an angle on the impeller wheel that provides thewheel turning impulse by the reaction provided by the blades indeflecting the on-coming wind. Hundreds of thousands of this type havebeen made but very few developed more than one horsepower, in fact afive horse power wind motor of this type is called a large wind motor.

2. The other class are those that revolve in the same direction as theon-coming wind and resemble paddle wheels or certain types of waterwheels, there are several types of these; one type has one half of theimpeller vanes guarded from the action of the wind, for otherwise theywill not revolve since the pressure on the two halves will balance;another type of this class uses folding vanes that close on themselveswhen they come into the counter pressure, also there is the screw vanetype used extensively on top of buildings as ventilator motors, and alsothe "S-rotor" type wind motor which powered an ocean-going ship on around trip from Europe to America.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The eternal winds cover the entire world and provide the most abundantsource of power to be obtained for the benefit of mankind.

The material to make my wind motor has been available for hundreds ofyears, all that was lacking to tap this unlimited source of power wasthe conception of my practical wind motor, which can be made in verylarge sizes, has low cost per h.p. construction cost, is safe tooperate, and efficient in all winds including mild winds.

The most important part of my invention is the wind gathering channeldevice, that preferably has a bottom and top side and a side at eachend, the front of this wind channel device is spread out to gather alarge quantity of the on-coming wind, the sides of this wind channelslope gradually inwardly to the outlet of the channel where the wind isdirected against the vanes of the impeller with a multiplied impact.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1, shows an end view of this wind motor, No. 1 is the impellerrotor which is mounted on axis shaft 2, No. 3 denotes the impeller vanesor buckets, shaft 2 is journaled in bearings 5, which bearings aresupported by structure No. 4, which structure is mounted on a firm base6; No. 7 is an upwardly sloping mound which is preferably hard faced,No. 8 is the adjustable wind channel member directly above the upwardlysloping mound that gathers, holds, and directs the wind downward towardthe impeller vanes, 9 is a supporting bar which is attached to bearing9A which can be movable or locked into position, the top side bearing ofsupporting bar 9 is 9B, 10 is a hydraulic cylinder mechanism, 10A is thebottom bearing support for the hydraulic cylinder mechanism and it canbe movable or locked into position, 10B is the top side bearing supportfor the hydraulic mechanism 10, 10C denotes hydraulic hose connectionsof hydraulic cylinder No. 10, 8 is an extending wind directing covermember which directs the wind down along the path of the impeller vanes.

FIG. 2, has some of the same parts as FIG. 1, except the inclinedfrontal wind channel bottom side member which is denoted by 7A, whichmovable wind channel member is held in the correct place by adjustablesupport 19, No. 6 is preferable a wood or metal platform instead of astationary base such as in FIG. 1, No. 15 is a base of some sturdysubstance such as concrete which supports the circular path or track No.11, wheel assemblies No. 12 are secured to the bottom side of movableplatform 6A and the wheels roll on the circular path or rail 11 so thatthe wind motor can turn in all directions.

FIG. 3, shows a perspective view of the complete wind motor as in FIG. 2with the addition of air rudder 13 and wind channel sides 7B of bottomwind channel member 7A, also the wind channel sides 18B of the top sidewind channel member 8.

FIG. 4, shows two stages of impeller rotors, No. 1A is the second or lowwind pressure member and 8B is the wind directing member at the bottomside of low pressure impeller rotor 1A.

FIG. 5, shows impeller rotors abreast in series with bearings denoted by5, deflection members 14 which are mounted preferably on the bottominclined wind channel member 7A to deflect the on-coming wind to theright or left of the gap where the bearing is located.

FIG. 6, shows the same wind motor but with vertical parallel abreastimpeller rotors represented by 1L and 1R, 16 denotes the structure thatsupports the impeller shaft bearing 5 of each impeller rotor at the topsides, the base platform supports the bottom side bearings No. 5 of theimpeller rotors, the wind channel main wind directing channel membersare the two vertical members 17L and 17R, one impeller rotor could beused instead of two by adjusting the vertical wind channel left andright members at the inner side to direct the wind against the vanes ofa single impeller rotor, top and bottom wind channel members which wouldprevent slip by of the wind are not shown in this drawing but should beincluded in this type wind motor to increase efficiency especially inthe smaller size units.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1, version would be satisfactory where the winds blow mostly fromthe same direction, such as in the arctic and antarctic regions, also inthe prevailing trade wind zones, and on top of mountains or at highaltitude where the anti-trade winds are found. This version could usethe slope of a mountain or hill for wind gathering channel member 7which could be several thousand feet wide and more than a mile long andrising several thousand feet higher at the top side than at the bottomside.

Also this FIG. 1, version could be made with member 7 not slopingupwardly from the front and having the front top side substantially onthe same plane as the rear top of 7. On mountain tops and high plateauswhere the wind is strong, only the top wind directing channel member No.8 would be necessary.

The impeller rotor could be in excess of 1000 ft. in diameter. The topwind channel member 8 could have automatically controlled mechanism tolift up the back side and lower the front side to regulate the windforce striking the impeller vanes and also to divert the wind over thetop of the impeller when necessary to protect the impeller from violentdestructive winds.

In FIG. 2, version is about the same as in FIG. 1, except it has avariable wind channel slope member 7A and the unit is also mounted on aplatform with wheels underneath which are made to run on a circulartrack or circular hard-surfaced path. This unit could be pointed in anydirection and held at any certain place by power driven mechanism.

This version could be made in large sizes such as a series of impellerrotors abreast with multiple stage impeller rotors, extending to orbeyond 4,000 ft., with the first stage impeller rotors having a diameterof or in excess of a 1000 ft. The center of the unit could be at thecenter of a section of land with the outer track, for it would requireseveral circular tracks, forming a circle of nearly a mile in diameter.A unit of this size on a section of land could produce more horse powerwith a 30 mile per hr. prevailing wind than the hydraulic power plantsat Niagara Falls could produce.

FIG. 3, version with rudder for holding the unit in correct position, ismore adoptable for smaller units such as 10,000 H.P. and smaller.

FIG. 4, shows the multiple stage propeller wheels which show the secondstage with a larger impeller rotor due to the lower pressure and slowerwind which will be received in this stage. Multiple stages will benecessary in big units for maximum efficiency.

FIG. 5, shows the impeller rotors in series abreast which embodimentwould be necessary in very large units. The impeller rotors are showncomparable very small in relation to size of shaft and bearing assemblybut actually these impeller rotors would be preferably very large indiameter so as to get the maximum torque from even a slow wind.

FIG. 6, embodiment has two parallel and abreast impeller rotors butcould have a series of parallel turn rotor units, which two rotors perunit would be more efficient, both from construction cost per h.p. andoperating efficiency. This embodiment would be preferable on top of abuilding, ship, floating platform, mountain top, in fact any place wherevertical space is more plentiful than horizontal space.

I claim:
 1. A wind motor that is propelled by the impact of wind againsta rotary impeller propulsion unit that travels in the same direction asthe wind comprising in combination:a. a substantially horizontal rotaryimpeller propulsion unit preferably of large diameter which haspropulsion vanes at the perimeter of the rotary impeller, this rotaryimpeller is mounted on an axis which is journaled by bearings at eachend, which bearings are supported by structural supports whose bottomsides are secured to a sturdy base such as concrete; b. at right angleto the face of the rotary impeller and adjacent and directly in front ofsaid propulsion rotary impeller is placed a slope which gradually risesfrom the front side to a level substantially just a little below thebottom of the vanes of the rotary impeller; c. also directly above andadjacent the bottom-side slope is a wind channel member which issubstantially flat and whose forward end is preferably some distanceabove the top of the propulsion impeller rotor and whose rear endextends down to substantially just a little above the vanes of therotary impeller; d. and the top wind directing channel member is pivotedand supported by a support member which preferably has at least onemovable joint, the angle of slope of this channel member can be changedby means such as a hydraulic cylinder mechanism to regulate the pressureand volume of the wind against the vanes of the impeller to controlspeed of the wind motor and guard against destructive winds.
 2. A windmotor that is propelled by the impact of wind against the vanes of animpeller rotor that travels in the same direction as the on-coming windas in claim 1, further comprising:a. a shield that joins with the inneredge of the top side wind channel member to direct and hold the windagainst the vanes at the top and back side of the impeller rotor; b. twovertical wind channels members one at each end of the wind directingchannel to prevent flow-by of the wind at each respective end of thewind directing channel.
 3. A wind motor that is propelled by the impactof wind against an impeller rotor that turns in the same direction asthe on-coming wind comprising in combination:a. a substantiallyhorizontal impeller rotor preferably of large diameter which has vanesat the perimeter, this impeller rotor is mounted on an axis which isjournaled by bearings at each end, which bearings are supported bystructural supports whose bottom sides are secured to a sturdy base suchas concrete; b. the propulsion rotor would be located in a recess whichwould be deep enough to shield at least the bottom half of the frontside of the propulsion impeller rotor, the bottom wind channel memberwhich is at right angle to the face of the rotor and adjacent anddirectly in front of the impeller rotor could be substantially level; c.directly above and adjacent to the bottom wind channel member is the topside wind channel member whose forward end reaches out over and abovethe substantially level bottom wind-directing channel member below, theback side of this top side wind directing channel member slopes down tojust substantially above the top side of the vanes of the impellerrotor; d. and the top wind directing channel member is supported bystructural members secured to the ground below, this top wind-directingchannel member is pivoted by the structural frame so that means such asa hydraulic cylinder mechanism can adjust the slope of the wind channelmember to control the speed of the wind motor and guard against violentwinds.
 4. A wind motor that is propelled by the impact of wind againstan impeller rotor that turns in the same direction as the on-coming windas in claim 3, further comprising: a. a shield that joins with the inneredge of the top side wind channel member to direct and hold the windagainst the vanes at the top and back sides of the impeller rotor;b. twovertical wind channel members, one at each end of the wind directingchannel to prevent flow-by of the wind at each respective end of thewind directing channel.